Internal combustion engines, or more particularly, diesel engines, may be used to power various different types of machines, such as standby power generators, power plants, on-highway trucks or vehicles, off-highway machines, earth-moving equipment, aerospace vehicles, locomotives, marine vessels, and the like. Internal combustion engines such as diesel engines are typically supplied with a mixture of air and fuel, which is ignited at specific timing intervals using controlled injection of fuel into the combustion chamber. There are various ongoing efforts to reduce emissions as well as to improve efficiency, reliability and overall productivity of internal combustion engines. In diesel engines, another common goal is to reduce unburned hydrocarbon production (i.e., white smoke) that may occur due to poor or incomplete combustion.
Furthermore, in cold ambient conditions starting internal combustion engines using diesel as the primary fuel source presents a challenge to the ongoing efforts to reduce emissions. In these conditions, the diesel engine may have several cylinders that do not completely and/or efficiently combust the diesel fuel injected into the cylinder until a full load is applied to the engine or the engine warms up to normal operating temperature. As a result, the engine may operate under uncontrollable and unfavorable engine conditions which produce increased vibrations, increased noise, undesirable exhaust gas production, incomplete hydrocarbon production, increased particulates and the like. In order to reduce or prevent production of undesirable exhaust gas a control system for operating an internal combustion engine is needed which can quickly test the cylinders and shut down inactive cylinders or cylinders that may be operating under reduced loads.
One option is to eliminate fuel from one half of the cylinders on a timed basis as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,485 (hereinafter “'495 patent”). Specifically, the '495 patent discloses an engine with two banks of cylinders and a control assembly which senses when the engine is at idle speed and disables or overrides the normal fuel supply control mechanism and operates the fuel supply mechanism on an alternating basis. As a result, fuel supply to one cylinder bank is ceased and the fuel which would otherwise be supplied to both banks of cylinders is supplied to the other of the cylinder banks on a timed alternating basis. Although the '495 patent may provide some benefits, there is still room for improvement. For instance, the '495 patent discloses that the timer is activated when the engine is operating in an idle state and during a cold-start condition. Moreover, the timer control of the '495 patent only alternates fuel delivery between cylinder banks, it does not select a cylinder bank to test and then deactivate one of the cylinder banks based off the test results.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages associated with conventional ignition systems and devices, a need exists for responsive testing and control strategies for internal combustion engines that not only deactivate underperforming cylinders during a cold-start condition to reduce the production of undesired exhaust gas, but also incorporate testing strategies that seek to even out wear between cylinders during execution of such testing and control strategies The present disclosure is directed at addressing one or more of the deficiencies and disadvantages set forth above. However, it should be appreciated that the solution of any particular problem is not a limitation on the scope of this disclosure or of the attached claims except to the extent expressly noted.